John Kerry: Turkey and Israel must 'rekindle historic relationship'

Ahead of meeting Recep Tayyip Erdogan, US Secretary of State John Kerry says
comments made by the Turkish prime minister equating Zionism to a "crime
against humanity" are objectionable.

8:38PM GMT 01 Mar 2013

Secretary of State Kerry said he had raised the comments "very directly" with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and would do the same when he met Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan later on Friday.

Addressing the UN Alliance of Civilisations conference in Vienna this week, Mr Erdogan complained of prejudices against Muslims.

He said Islamophobia should be considered a crime against humanity "just like Zionism, like anti-Semitism and like fascism."

Mr Kerry said the US, "not only disagree with it, we found it objectionable."

Speaking at a news conference with Davutoglu in Ankara on Friday, he said that he believed there was a "way forward" in the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians "but it obviously gets more complicated in the aftermath of a speech such as that we heard in Vienna."